Nicola Solomon, the chief executive of the UK’s Society of Authors (9,500 members), offered an understanding of author advocacy in the UK market, particularly in its range of paths to publication.
She said, “Many authors still consider the traditional publishing field the gold standard.… There still are some fantastic publishers out there. There are some wonderful books being traditionally published.…
“But all is not well in the traditional publishing arena. Traditional publishers and agents are becoming increasingly picky about what few books they take on. There are even bigger profit margins. They use independently published books as a slush pile—why should they take a risk if the author can test the water first? …
“Publishers readily accept that publishing is changing and that they do not know what may be coming along next. Their response is to take as many rights as possible from authors in the hope that they may be able to exploit them and to only offer authors a small share until they are sure what the business model will be. Publishers tell authors that they need those rights to properly exploit authors’ work, but unless authors hold on to them or build in reviews and escalators, publishers will not increase authors’ share when the outlook becomes clearer.
“They are running businesses, despite their protestations that the author is at the heart of everything they do.”
Bottom line: In the Society’s advocacy experience, that last line clarifies the wide gap between what the publishing establishment as a collective seems to say and what many authors seem to hear. Solomon went on to discuss the difficulties that authors experience with reversion of rights, and ended with a call for support for the creator contract model that features, among other things, “a general clause of ‘reasonableness’” already found in other countries’ publishing contracts (e.g., France). As she called for a fair “author share, not author care,” her remarks illuminated the image problem publishers have among many authors.
Editor’s note: This issue of The Hot Sheet is dedicated to coverage of Author Day in London. Author Day took place on Monday (November 30) as part of the fifth annual FutureBook Conference, Europe’s largest publishing conference.
Author Day was not focused on writing tips or inspirational goals, but on industry and business challenges, and it was limited in size to about 100 delegates, 20 speakers, and 15 staff members.
The concept of trust is the fundamental issue that arose from the Author Day discussions. From many trade authors’ mistrust of royalty statements they can’t read to many indie authors’ mistrust of agents and editors, we witnessed severe—even crippling—gaps in trust between virtually any parts of the industry you might study.
The stories and comments in our coverage from Author Day have not yet been published elsewhere and point to key issues that affect the author experience.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
